You would think I was opening a cafe

All right, well before we get started with the whole photo and essay thing... I have more food to share. I do apologize if this interruption happens regularly, or more than once. I've been having a good time with this lately. My lunches have been a little over the top- seeing as how they are for one and a half persons... and the other half mostly just wants yogurt and a few nibbles of whatever I'm eating.

It is so worth it though, and not really that much work, to end up with a nice savory meal instead of crackers and peanut butter (though those tasted good the other day too... while I was preparing lunch).

Just a couple quick recipes here, if you care to indulge yourself. The above photo is the Pumpkin and Feta muffins (with tons of other good stuff not in the title, like spinach, sunflower seeds and parmesan cheese to name a few) which I have mentioned here before... somewhere... and the first time around I wasn't overly impressed. But this time, I had to change a few things because of the ingredients I had on hand, and also spilled a little extra salt in the bowl after a fight with a feisty plastic trap door thingy that guards the salt from escaping I guess. In the end, they proved far more tastier than my first endeavor and I was really pleased with them. I ate four for lunch that day.

The recipe is found here, and my little list of substitutions are as follows:

- sliced almonds in place of the sunflower seeds

- baked sweet potato in place of the pumpkin

- 1/2 ricotta and 1/2 feta in place of all feta

- 2/3 cup whole wheat and 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour in place of all white flour

- maybe a bit more salt than is asked for

This next easy recipe is from a photo I saw on pinterest of a basil pesto, mozzarella, and plum tomato grilled cheese sandwich, with a side salad of kidney beans, sweet corn, and avocado.  I happened to have all those ingredients on hand (grape tomatoes in place of plum) as well as some fresh spinach which I threw on the sandwich. The salad was sprinkled with a pinch of salt... and there was our little gourmet lunch for one (and a half). Delish.